Posted on 05/21/2015 9:10:37 PM PDT by concernedcitizen76
On life support as of early Thursday morning, President Barack Obama’s trade agenda has found new life.
In a dramatic vote critical to the future of the president’s goal of securing new trade deals with Pacific Rim and European countries, the Senate on Thursday broke a bipartisan filibuster of legislation to give the president “fast-track” authority to negotiate new trade deals.
The 62-38 vote preserves the possibility that the Senate can finish the trade bill before the Memorial Day recess, which would be a major boon to Obama and Republican leaders in the House and Senate. It came after a round of horse-trading that assures the Export-Import Bank will receive a chance at a lifeline to live past June 30, when it is scheduled to expire.
“It was a nice victory. We’re going to continue and finish up the bill this week,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell told reporters.
Something is rotten in Congress. We had all been told that the reason the Obama agenda was unopposed was because Republicans were in the minority in the Senate. Yet, ever since Republicans took control over both houses, they have willingly granted everything on the Obama administration's wish list. There has to be either bribery or coercion and we need to find out how and why we voters were betrayed.
49 Republicans and 13 Democrats voted to advance the legislation. Five Republicans and 33 Democrats opposed it.
The Chamber of Commerce is happy, and that’s what counts.
Now we know why the RINO establishment worked so hard to undermine conservative candidates in the 2014 races, why Boehner lied balfaced to get the infamous Cromnibus bill passed in December and why McConnell has done everything possibly including bending over to be the doormat and whatever else for Obama and the Dems. Reid loses and McConnell morphs into Reid. The money is their religion, and “the people be damned” (as J. P. Morgan once angrily shouted.)
The dishonesty of this corrupt congress continues....
Hate to say this but it would have been better for Conservatives had Alison Grimes defeated Mcconnell because the senate GOP would have new leadership and not the incompetents currently acting like Democrats.
I used to half-jokingly say that 0bama didn’t want to be President of the United States of America. He wanted to be the last one.
It’s no joke anymore.
They are both Owned by Wall Street and Billionaires.
No true conservative voted to give Soros unlimited treaty powers.
I told the Cruz Pres money hustlers to stop borthering me.
He is a huge phony and traitor to this country.
His phony amendment PR scam was just an insult to us.
Giving an American hater and Soros puppet unstoppable power leaves me beyond angry.
Well, you know, somebody might criticize them.
Perhaps it's a hissy-fit over the "Bevins debacle"......
I have no doubt there was something on the table to help the rinos (themselves as individuals) versus the rest of the so-called conservatives. Who the hell in their right mind would trust odumbo and his ilk? Beware of the wolf in sheep’s clothing!
Why Cruz And Paul still think they are qualified to be called conservative after this betrayal tells us how little they think of us!
Paul and Cruz should have filibustered this along with the Dems !
There is a better way to describe it.
All FTA's have protections for the Investors and protections for labor, enviros, and social welfare.
The premise for the investor protections is that in an Investor-State trade agreement(FTA), the state, unable to raise taxes on the investor, will utilize regulations. In which case, regulations are actually taxes masquerading as regulations. So, the investors have to be protected from this and in NAFTA, the investor protections were found in Chapter 11.
When FTA disputes arise, they are not settled in the courts. Instead, they are settled by the Arbitration Panel, and a nation's courts have to honor the Arbitration Panel's decision. This is why it is often said that FTA's trump US law(regulations).
Which is why the left(union/labor, enviros, social welfare) will often oppose FTAs. They say the Investor Protections are stacked against them.
And this was a big issue in NAFTA. NAFTA was negotiated secretly and Congress could not change it. Congress could only vote up or down. But many in Congress(mostly dems) thought protections for labor, enviro, and welfare were lacking so they all agreed that the incoming prez, Bill Clinton, would negotiate(with Canada and Mexico) a parallel agreement that contained protections for the left. But Clinton's parallel agreement turned out to be toothless and many on the left accused Clinton of being in cahoots with the GOP. Now they are accusing Obama of being in cahoots with the GOP.
Since NAFTA, we have had CAFTA, Chile, Panama, Columbia, and Korea, all negotiated by GW Bush. And Bush was transparent in his negotiations, letting Congress know the details. But the dems refused to OK Panama, Columbia, and Korea. Obama renegotiated those 3 FTAs and Congress approved them.
There is a bigger picture here.
We call them Free Trade Agreements because they eliminate or harmonize tariffs but they are actually Investor-State Trade Agreements. And since the Arbitration Panels settle the disputes, the Arbitration Panel is establishing law by precedents. And this is called Investor State Law. And as time goes by, and more trade agreements are established, the body of Investor State Law grows, and is housed at the WTO.
Eventually, the body of Investor State Law grows until it reaches critical mass, and the regulatory law of individual nations become irrelevant, because they are all trumped by Investor State Law. Which means the Trans Nationals become the govt.
To know more about this, do a google search of Investor State Law and/or Investor State Trade Agreement.
Thanks for that background, Ben. Very informative.
Actually five Republicans voted “Nay.”
I hear TED CRUZ voted FOR this
Ted Cruz voted for it too. Why is everyone mad at McConnell and forgiving Cruz?
Mitch McConnell can’t MAKE any U.S. Senator do anything. Each Senator is responsble for their own vote and 48 other Republicans voted “aye.”
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.